No, this isn’t an episode of Metalocalypse.

MusicJanuary 03, 2019By Will Brendza

The saga of Cannibal Corpse guitarist Pat O’Brian is a bizarre one.

In early December the death metal musician was arrested after breaking into a stranger’s home, assaulting the residents and attacking a police officer with a deadly weapon. But the story doesn’t end there — in fact, it gets much weirder.

You see, O’Brian had been acting strange for a while before all this went down. Relatives reported that he’d been calling them and talking about “aliens landing” in the weeks leading up to his arrest.

But, while that was enough to raise eyebrows it was hardly enough to raise concern. After all, this is the lead guitarist for the band who brought us smash hits like “I Come Blood,” “Force Fed Broken Glass,” and “Fucked with a Knife.” To relatives, O’Brian’s prophecies of alien landings probably sounded like garden-variety conversation with the dude.

It wasn’t clear how far-gone O’Brian was until it was too far too late.

On December 10th O’Brian broke into a stranger’s home armed and rambling insanely. The owners ordered him to leave, but instead of complying, the long haired, hulking death metal musician screamed that “The rapture is coming!” shoved the women to the ground and fled into their backyard.

Police found O’Brian hiding behind a nearby fence. Upon his discovery he charged responding officers wielding a knife, but was tased repeatedly, subdued and restrained before he could actually cause any harm.

That should have been the end of the story, but, of course, it wasn’t.

Because, as all of that breaking-and-entering, attacking and tasing was happening, several blocks away, firefighters were busy dealing with an unusually dangerous house fire. One that was exploding like a warzone as the inferno raged deeper into the structure.

It was O’Brian’s home. While he was out terrorizing the neighborhood, the house he was renting, somehow, was burning to the ground.

Now, I’m not one to venture into the world of speculative journalism lightly. But, it sort of seems like O’Brian might have had something to do with that fire. And I’m not alone on that line of thinking: investigators believe that it was a case of arson. (Though O’Brian has not yet been charged with any offense related to the fire.)

When the blaze was finally put out, a bomb squad descended on the wreckage to discover a virtual arsenal within: 50 shotguns, 10 semi-automatic rifles (including AK-47 variants), two Uzi-style rifles, 20 handguns, a pair of flamethrowers, and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

“The dangerous complication here was ammunition stored within the home, which was exploding due to the flames,” Eric Seidel, the fire rescue spokesman, tells Patch.com. “It took us nearly an hour to bring this one under control. Thankfully, there were no injuries.”

Guns and ammo weren’t all that that were discovered inside of the charred remains of O’Brian’s home, though. Firefighters also found a number of skulls in the wreckage — how those got there, and whether or not they belonged to actual human beings, remains unclear.

What is clear, however, is that Pat O’Brian needs some love in life. Obviously, this insane episode is indicative of some kind of mental breakdown, some kind of slip over The Edge. It’s a sad glimpse into O’Brian’s soul, a tortured thing as dark as the death metal he writes. He needs to climb out of the bleak black pits of metal and go smell some flowers, frolic in a field, and cuddle someone, be the small spoon. Living entirely in a “Stripped, Raped and Strangled” world cannot be a healthy way to exist.

The band’s official statement on the incident was posted to Facebook on December 20th:

As a band and as individuals, we all want nothing but the best for our brother and partner, Pat. While we can offer no further information about the incident, we wanted everyone to know that Pat is getting the help he needs and appreciates the love and support from Cannibal Corpse fans around the world.

Pat is currently with family and friends and looks forward to a healthy return at some point. For anyone wondering, all Cannibal Corpse touring will happen as planned and all shows will be played.

So, sounds like he is getting some lovin’ after all.

The timing for all this is unfortunate as Cannibal Corpse is billed to open for Slayer throughout their North American farewell tour. But, as stated, the band is adamant that their shows will be played as scheduled, despite the setback. That could mean pressing on without O’Brian, while he wrestles with whatever demons pushed him to the brink.

Hopefully he comes out on top; hopefully this real-life Nathan Explosion finds the peace he needs. And hopefully he doesn’t have too hard a time looking for a new place to rent.